Posted on 09/22/2008 1:59:45 PM PDT by Islander7
OXFORD -- University of Mississippi Chancellor Robert Khayat is well aware of the significance of the nation's first black presidential nominee, Democrat Barack Obama, arriving this week on the same campus where James Meredith broke the color barrier in 1962.
When the international media spotlight returns for the Friday debate, the chancellor knows questions about race will come from the expected 3,000 members of the media. Feeling confident about the work the school has done in recent years, Khayat believes many journalists with opinions of the university forged by the riot touched off by Meredith's enrollment will be stunned by what they find at Ole Miss in 2008.
"They will find quite a diverse student population," Khayat said. "They will find African Americans in leadership positions on the faculty and the staff and in the student population. They will find a healthy slice of America where people from every segment of society are well received and given an opportunity to be successful."
A civil rights monument on campus, which was completed more than 40 years after Meredith graduated, features a statue of him. Students fought to include it in the plans. It stands near the famous Lyceum - the epicenter of the riots in 1962 and also familiar as the building used in the university's logo. On the other side of the Lyceum is a Confederate monument.
Meredith, who over the last few years has been celebrated on campus as a hero, said the university has used lessons from its uniquely dark past to move forward.
(Excerpt) Read more at sunherald.com ...
Meredith's son, Joseph, earned his doctorate in business administration from Ole Miss in 2002 and he received the Outstanding Doctoral Student Achievement Award. Joseph Meredith, 39, died in February after a battle with lupus.
Observers note that much progress has been made at Ole Miss, particularly during the Khayat administration, which began in 1995. But some have expressed vague fears something could happen at the debate to further mar the state's national image, harm race relations, or worse.
That said, Ole Miss is more poised to deal with DUI's from the rich sons of Multimillionaire Trial Lawyers.
TAW
MS ping
Oxford...the San Francisco, Seattle and Austin of Mississippi.....(eye roll) I hear the taxes there have gone through the roof thanks to liberal politics. That was a couple of years ago though. Is it still like that?
(Yea and Ole Miss has the best looking Co-eds on the planet.)
Dirty Old Men know these things. :>)
Gator Bait!
Amen to that, brother. And before anyone argues that you’re wrong about Ole Miss having the best looking women on the planet, they need to travel there on a football Saturday and THEN challenge the declaration. :-)
I think I’m right in saying James Meredith is a conservative?
MM
Welcome back...lol
Meredith and the various civil rights activist groups he was in association with...sorta like how Rosa Parks was no accident on that bus...Meredith was no random applicant either.
Then of course Ross Barnett, theatrical southern politician extraordinaire
and then Jack Kennedy who had less zeal for this sorta thing that did his more idealistic brother Bobby.
the real victims were the US Marshalls who sure didn't want to be there.
but it worked, Ole Miss was desegregated in the end and even though they basically pay blacks to go there the black students there now are a small fraction of their percentage of the state population even today almost 50 years later.
Meredith did indeed grow more conservative....like Charlie Evers and a few other blacks who were in the state movement. In fact, Meredith is very very vocal in denouncing what today passes for a civil rights movement...he feels it has turned blacks into second class citizens..and I unsurprisingly happen to agree.
I figger the Clintons will have O assassinated
while he is in Oxford. That way they can blame it
on us redneck racist.
I was born and reared in Mississippi, love my home state.
But I really don’t understand why the GOP agreed to a debate in Oxford. The Dems have been trying to make this election all about race (though they deny it), and this just plays into their hands.
Who in the GOP made this bad decision?
I wondered why they chose MS for the debate. Mississippi is completely ignored every other time or showcased in a bad light. I wondered if it had something to do with Meredith...
“...Who in the GOP made this bad decision?...”
Bad decision? Why do you think it is a bad decision?
Mississippi has made far more progress in race relations than many northern states. We have more black elected officials than any other state. We have very few purely racial conflicts.
I think Oxford is no more a controversial location than any other.
1998 Data is the most recent I could find in a flash.
http://allcountries.org/uscensus/473_black_elected_officials_by_office_and.html
TAW
It’s a bad decision because the MSM will focus so much on the whole issue of “race,” just because it is in Mississippi....which, as I said, plays right into the hands of Obama. Even if the MSM talks of the progress made in MS, it still keeps race the subject.
Mississippi is better than many northern states as far as the races getting along, I definitely agree with you. Having lived most of my life in MS, I know the situation well.
But the rest of the country still view MS with the thought of racism and nothing but racism; and thus, even the underlying current running through this week and the debate is “race.” The Dems must love it.
Indeed we do grow them pretty in the Magnolia state, but...with all due respect, I saw a dozen ladies prettier than those (and they’re pretty!) within my first few minutes at Ole Miss last Saturday. :-)
MM
“....It’s a bad decision because the MSM will focus so much on the whole issue of “race,” just because it is in Mississippi....”
They have been recycling the same old sad stories for 40 years. Nothing is going to change that unless they are confronted with the truth.
I believe the behavior of our citizens in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has changed many opinions.
I understand your concerns, believe me I do. Let’s just see how things work.
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